Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-11-16
REVISING WEB srER' DICTIONARY,
"Dads VIII be Incorporated-Ths Plural
OF Cauous-Four Years at Work.

''D9ds win be Incorporsted-The Plural
| OF Cauous-FOur Years at Work.
A New Haven Comm letter to the
| New York Tribune says Several months
ago considerable interest was aroused In
this city by the announcement that &
complete revision of Webter's Dictionary
was in progress here; but so carefully
guarded were the names Of the revisers
that little could be learned about them
or their labors. The only Information
that could be obtained was that
| x-President Porter had charge Of the en-
terprise, and that the work was carried
on in the top story OF the tallest building
in town. Admitance was refused to the
interior Of the mysterious apartments,
and the persons employed within were as
dumb as the historic oyster when ques-
toned in reference to the nature OF their
employment. It was sscertalned thst q
new dictionary was being prepared for
the publishers.
In the work of DR.. Porter is assisted
by 8 large corps OF literary authorities
WHO were mainly Yole Professors,
though some OF the associate editors
are from others colleges In addition to
this board of associate editors, there are
several assistants or clerks, 8 majority of
whom are recent Yale graduates. The
revision is carried on at the ex-
pense of the Springfield publishers,
who have published the dictionary
for many years. When questioned
about the revision yesterday, DR..
Porter manifested extreme reticence
upon the subject aud said that at pres
ent publicity WIS undesirable. He, how
ever, finally said: "The same general
plan will be observed in the revision now
in pr gregs as in the last revision.
have not been compelled to devote any
CREST amount of time to it until recently,
when the duties have increased some
what. The generally accepted forms Of
spelling will be observed so far as
possible, though advocates CT the
advanced methods of spelling, like Pro-
fessor Marsh of Lafayette College, and
Professor Whitney of Yale, advocate
adoption Of the new forms of spelling in
many words. In general words will be
AngliOized as far as possible, though
some words of Greek and Latin derivs
ton may retain th If foreign plurals. As
regards the disputed plural of the word
caucus L know of but ore possible plu-
raj, namely, 'csucuses,' and this torm
will be used in this word and other words
of the same class. All words Of rece ut origin
which convey distinct ideas and are rec
ogu!zad and used by reputable authors,
will be incorporated in the revision. The
word dude believe to convey a speci-
fc idea, expressed by no othsr word. and,
though it may be hard 30 give the mean
ing which the word conveys, | think it
will be Incorporated in the worG. The
word boycott is also word Of definite
meaning rnd of recent origin, and il will
also probably be incorporated"
The new dictionary will be completed
during the coming year, and will prob
ably be placed on sale by next July. The
, totsl cost Of preparing the new work will
be about $50, zoe, and the selling price
for the latest revised will be advanced to
$l2. This statement is made on the
authority Of rumor only, and may not be
accurate, however. The work has been
In progr ss during the last four years,
but 1t was not until quite recently that
the fact became known.